Soak up the misery - it will make you more positive about your own life (Eastenders)

Member Name: BumpyBump

Product:	Eastenders
Date:	04/11/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of charactes so you don't get bored

Disadvantages: Ten people in one 3-bed semi? As if!

A British soap set in fictional Albert Square in the fictional East London post code of E20, EastEnders follows the lives of the local residents, and its central point seems to be The Queen Victoria (Queen Vic) pub.

Currently, there are about twenty households in Albert Square, and for the most part they're all really incestuous and immoral. There is always plenty of bed-hopping going on and someone is always plotting someone else's murder/set-up/imprisonment. EastEnders is famous in particular for its explosive (sometimes literally) Christmas storylines. There is usually a lot of hubbub and speculation around September time as to what the revelations for the big day will be. More often than not, it's sheer misery for the characters. And that is what I love about EastEnders - it makes me feel so much better about my life!

I grew up in East London and there are pockets of it which are definitely like Albert Square, but then I suppose there are places like this all around Britain, where the working and middle classes mingle and try to make the best of their miserable little lives. The main gripe which most people seem to have is the fact that no-one on Albert Square seems to own their own washing machine. It is true that a lot of heart-to-hearts go on in the Launderette, as people cry into their soiled smalls. Truth be told, I'd probably be doing a lot of crying as well if I couldn't afford to run a washing machine. Personally, MY main gripe is that each of the houses, which can't have more than two bedrooms and a box room, seem to have no trouble fitting six, eight or even ten people in them. This is by far the most unrealistic aspect of them all. Also, none of them seem to be able to get a job which isn't based directly on the Square - if they can even get a job at all, that is. I know unemployment is bad at the moment, but it feels as though at least 50% of the residents are out of work at any one time. Don't they know how much it costs to live in London? The dole won't keep them all in 3-bed semis in zone 3. Except that it does! Why am I working for a living then? I must have 'mug' written all over me.

For my money, EastEnders addresses a lot of the issues of living in the UK, and London in particular. No-one has ever got any money (sounds horribly familiar), the sky is always grey (sounds even more horribly familiar) and everyone is generally a bit of a miserable so-and-so. There are sometimes some controversial storylines (mental illness, prostitution, homosexuality in Islam) but usually it is just your run-of-the-mill affairs and murders. Pretty bog standard soap fare really!

I think EastEnders is one of those that you really love or really hate. I really love it but then I'm a Londoner so it would be disloyal not to, wouldn't it?! Northerners probably prefer Corrie.

Catch it on Mondays (8pm), Tuesdays (7.30pm), Thursdays (7.30pm) and Fridays (8pm) on BBC1.

Summary: Don't ever end(ers) *groan*